


Rough Night

by Xelkyrien



Series: Interview With A Monster [2]
Category: Total Drama (Cartoon)
Genre: Be Careful What You Wish For, Dissociative Identity Disorder, F/M, Gen, Multiple Personalities, Touch Aversion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22315261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xelkyrien/pseuds/Xelkyrien
Summary: Mal's six month sentence is already off to a bad start.
Relationships: Mike/Zoey (Total Drama)
Series: Interview With A Monster [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602616
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	Rough Night

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about the next part of this series. I wanted to write something about school and I have another part planned relating to driving, so inevitably the question of Mike’s age came up. I don’t think it was ever actually given so I just have to make an educated guess… In the show they’re described as “teens” so that would place their age between 13 and 19 if we’re going by numbers or 13 and 18 if we’re talking laws. Looking at the characters I’d say they definitely don’t look like they’re in middle school so 13 is out. I assume that the show still takes place during the summer. Where I live teens can’t even work until 15, and that’s with parent’s permission, so I’m going to say Mike’s 15 during Revenge of The Island. From one summer to the next that would put him at 16 during All Stars. With the 5 month gap between then and the start of this series I’m going to say he’s 17 by now, making him a Junior in High School.

Mal woke in the morning to a loud ringing sound coming from somewhere to his right. As he cracked open his eyes he was greeted by the sight of the same straw colored ceiling and grey-green walls he had fallen asleep staring at.

Mike’s Room.

The teen groaned and rolled onto his side. He had expected Mike would have come to his senses by now and he’d be waking up in the mind, as far away from Mike’s beloved family and friends as he could manage. Mal would have preferred it at the moment. He had only spent half a day with Mike’s foster parents but he was already ready to tear his hair out. Both Janice and Craig were sickeningly sweet and hopelessly stupid. They had been there the day before, just sitting in the waiting room at the therapist’s office happily chatting away until they saw him approach.

Then they pounced.

It was one warm sappy greeting followed by disgustingly kind statements and talk about plans over the next six months. Like complete morons the pair were acting like they always did, as though they had been talking to Mike or Vito instead of like they had just come face to face with the devil himself.

And then, worst of all, the two had tried to _hug him_. Mal hadn’t been certain what they were doing at first. Obviously he knew what a hug was. He had had that kind of interaction with Zoey while he had been pretending to be Mike. That had been the worst part of keeping up the ruse. The mere thought of another human being touching him made his skin burn and sting, but Mike was a terribly affectionate guy so Mal had to suffer through it.

Zoey hugging who she thought was Mike and anybody hugging Mal when they knew full well who he was were very different things. It was expected that the little red head would want to cling to her boyfriend, but somebody hugging Mal was about as unexpected as would be Scott hugging Fang. That’s why, when Mike’s foster parents had made the attempt, their actions didn’t quite register and he hadn’t reacted to it until it was already too late. Mal was fairly certain he had been in shock and a little ashamed to say that had developed into panic. When he felt his skin burn like he was covered in angry fire ants the distraught teen wasted no time before extricating himself from the couple’s embrace.

He had only narrowly avoided punching them to free himself. The two had seemed confused, worried and a little disappointed but at that point Mal couldn’t bring himself to care. His heart had been pounding in his chest, adrenaline was coursing through his veins and he wanted nothing more than to tear off his own flesh to escape the biting agony.

Needless to say it was a long evening, and though the thick green curtains were securely closed so as to not allow any light into the room Mal had a feeling it was an early morning. He finally turned his attention towards the shrill ringing sound to his right. The irritating noise seemed to emanate from Mike’s phone, nestled amongst trophies and ribbons on the small nightstand next to the bed. Many of the awards around the room belonged to Svetlana or Vito as the two most athletically inclined personalities apart from Mike himself, but Manitoba had managed to accumulate a few as well for various scavenger hunts and tracking competitions. The only things Mal had ever won Mike were a few bruises and a trip to juvenile detention. He wasn’t jealous or bitter _at all_.

Ignoring the awards, Mal plucked the phone from the nightstand and pressed the only actual button on it to light up the screen. Big white numbers immediately came into view displaying the time as 6:30 AM along with a small image of a clock that was moving from side to side. He frowned at the device before turning off the alarm and going back to sleep.

* * *

It wasn’t even five minutes later that Janice flung open the bedroom door and stepped into the room with an enthusiastic, “Rise and shine, sweetie! You don’t want to be late for school!”

Mal groaned, opening his eyes and throwing a glare at the annoying woman as she made her way across the room commenting on how dark it was. She tore open the curtains, allowing morning sunlight to flood into the space and causing Mal the squint against the sudden brightness. In response he lay back down and pulled the heavy blue comforter over his head, saying, “I’m not going.”

“Of course you are.” Mike’s foster mother laughed, as though she thought he were joking. Mal just pulled the covers tighter around himself. The woman continued unperturbed as she walked across the room back to the door, “Go on and get ready. Breakfast is on the table and your dad’s going to drive you to school. It’ll be fun. Zoey will be there.”

As if that helped.

Zoey being there was all the more reason not to go. Mike loved Zoey so much and was so dead-set on a future with her that he dedicated a portion of the prize money to moving her from her pathetic tiny town to his. Her family didn’t really complain, but considering that they allowed their only child to enter a reality television competition where she could have easily been horribly maimed, freakishly mutated or even killed not just once, but twice Mal assumed that they didn’t care too much about her. Since she was no longer an obstacle between him and his goals Mal didn’t really care too much about her either, but he was certain she hated him. He was also fairly certain that despite her animosity she would be sticking to him like glue all day “to protect Mike” and keep him from doing anything remotely fun.

Mal wasn’t in any mood to put up with Mike’s over-protective girlfriend all day, especially after the lousy evening he had. He didn’t have to go to school. They couldn’t make him. Even if Janice and Craig did force him to the school building it wasn’t like they could follow him all day to make sure he stayed there. As soon as they drove away he was free to run off and do anything he wanted. Why stop at ditching school? He could just run away. Mal could hide some clothes and food in his school bag and skip town after the family car was out of sight. Mike’s foster parents would be none the wiser until afternoon and by then he’d be long gone.

These thoughts followed Mal as he got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom to shower and get dressed, playing in a loop and evolving to include more and more possibilities. If he ran away he wouldn’t have that six month deadline floating over his head. Thanks to Allison he would have permanent control of the body and nobody would be around that could take it away from him. Think of all the fun he could have on his own out in the world! He could relive his Total Drama glory days on a much larger scale. There was plenty of dangerous stuff out there just begging to be exploited for his amusement. Maybe he could start his own reality show and have a television network send him groups of people to torture every year like they did for Chris.

Mal threw on a loose grey hoodie over Mike’s usual teal shirt before heading downstairs for breakfast, a big sinister grin having taken over his face. As he ate he drowned out Mike’s foster parents’ excited rambling about his first day of school, lost in thoughts of the grueling and dangerous challenges he would make to torment contestants as Total Drama’s host. Soon enough, Mal found himself standing outside of Mike’s school building with his bag slung over his shoulder.

“Damn it.” He swore, his wicked grin slipping away into an angry frown. On the school stairs he saw the unmistakable fire-engine-red pigtails that belonged to Zoey, the usually-chipper girl leaning against the newel post looking upset. With a huff and a scowl Mal trudged towards the building, swearing under his breath.

**Author's Note:**

> I gave his foster parents names. It's better than calling them "Mike's foster parents" all the time.  
> The description of his room came from the room we see Mike in during his audition tape.  
> Expect at least twenty percent more chaos in the next installment.


End file.
